Child rape at Penn State. A murderous rampage in Norway. A new civil war in Sudan. Ruthless drug cartels. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hate Crimes. Murder. Genocide. What is wrong with us? Are we really that bad?

The common wisdom is that we’re getting more violent all the time. Witness the genocides and world wars of the last century. But cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker says we have it all wrong. And in his 800 page book “The Better Angels of Ourselves” he makes the case for how violence has declined.

The Interrupters tells the moving and surprising stories of three "violence interrupters" who try to protect their Chicago communities from the violence they once doled out. They believe that violence spreads like an infectious diseases, so the treatment should be similar: stop the infection at its source.

Anthony Shadid won two Pulitzer Prizes for his coverage of the war in Iraq. He knows the violence of war. As he told Steve Paulson, he also knows, that when the war ends, unintended consequences follow.

Back in 1969, Marlantes was dropped in the middle of a jungle in Vietnam - at the age of 23, put in charge of the lives of 40 other young men. He was not psychologically or spiritually prepared for that or for what came after the war.